Our Future Starts Now.

Staying in touch with your family and our community.

John Ray has been actively involved in our community for years. He has proven his desire and dedication to improving our community as the president of Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhood, chairman of Nashville RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), co-founding Friends of Sevier Park and providing pro bono legal services for local artists and entrepreneurs. As our state representative, John Ray remains actively engaged in our neighborhoods and community and communicates with us regularly.

As your state representative, John Ray regularly communicates by: regularly attending neighborhood association meetings; emailing bi-weekly newsletters summarizing issues and legislative activity during session; emailing quarterly written reports detailing his work on your behalf in our community and the Capitol; hosting regular open meetings across the district with neighborhood associations, parent/teacher groups, business leaders and the faith community; creating an open-line of communication with local officials to continue Nashville's progress; and maintaining an "open door" policy to welcome visitors year-round.

The status quo is unacceptable. To continue Nashville's progress and get the state back on track, John Ray brings a new energy, new ideas and a new brand of leadership to the state legislature every day. While promoting an agenda focused on our future and actively and aggressively standing up to legislators who try to interfere with Nashville's progress and impede our state's prosperity, he consistently reaches across the aisle to find common ground on issues to benefit all Tennesseans. To facilitate a promising future for Nashville's families and workers, John Ray actively works with leaders in the public and private sector to build consensus and solve immediate and long-term problems that must be addressed like transportation, affordable housing, workforce training, and access to affordable, quality healthcare. By listening to and working with Nashville's residents and business community, John Ray has gained a reputation for his willingness to do the heavy lifting and find innovative solutions to issues affecting Tennesseans' daily lives.

A future where every child gets a quality education and an opportunity.

As a public school parent and legislator, John Ray is working to provide public schools and teachers with the resources they need to succeed. To better learn what our schools need and gain a better understanding of oft-debated education issues firsthand, John Ray regularly communicates with principals and teachers in Nashville's schools. Utilizing the information gathered in these meetings, he is working to expand quality pre-K and after-school programs so that all children have an opportunity to succeed. John Ray also believes that our teachers deserve more respect, more support and higher salaries. The most productive way to ensure a promising future for our families, our city and generations to come is to invest our time and attention, our money and all possible resources into public education at every level.

A future where everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.

John Ray is privileged to represent District 55 which has multiple major hospitals, medical clinics, community health clinics and thousands of health care professionals living and working in it every day. He has made the provision of quality and affordable health care a top priority and focus of his public service. John Ray believes that we must protect and provide for our seniors, strengthen TennCare for struggling families, and make sure that all children, regardless of income, have access to quality, affordable health care. He strongly believes in protecting a woman's constitutionally protected right to privacy and leads the fight in the Tennessee House to protect women's right to make their own health care decisions. It is past time to stop playing politics with Tennesseans' lives and make health care accessible and affordable for all families. To this end, John Ray has been a leading proponent of expanding Medicaid in Tennessee to fill in the "coverage gap" and a leading voice to hold state officials responsible for unexplained and unjustified insurance premium rate hikes.

A future with better paying jobs and an atmosphere conducive to innovation.

Representing some of the city and region's most successful small business owners and employees, John Ray maintains a focus on market trends, employment rates and the fledgling Nashville tech sector. He continuously follows emerging technologies to try and ensure that state policy is keeping pace with evolving technology. John Ray recognizes that we must continue to develop local talent in a multitude of thriving industries, attract and support more small businesses, recruit more companies with well-paying jobs, and nurture existing businesses that have invested in and contributed to our community's success. He is proud to represent and support increased funding for Tennessee College of Applied Technology and Nashville State Community College, both of which sit in the heart of District 55, as do Belmont University, Vanderbilt University and Aquinas College. John Ray wants to see well-paying companies competing for the highly-skilled Tennessee workers graduating from these institutions of higher learning, rather than the other way around.

A future where everyone is treated equally.

John Ray is working to ensure pay equality and shatter the glass ceiling. He recognizes the value of diversity in our community and continuously speaks out and advocates for equality for every Tennessean. Whether the target of legislation or policy is an immigrant, a refugee, a member of the LGBTQ community, or a member of any minority group, John Ray is the first to stand up and speak out against hate and discrimination. He strongly believes that discrimination, in any form, should not be tolerated. To recognize John Ray for his efforts in the state legislature, Nashville Pride honored him with their 2016 Ally Award.

John Ray is on our side.

Fighting for Tennessee's rural families and local economies, as well as everyone who cherishes our state parks, John Ray has led the fight against Governor Haslam's efforts to privatize our state parks. He has also led the resistance against the Haslam administration's plan to outsource all of the facility maintenance jobs at our state colleges and universities. For almost two years, John Ray, along with Sen. Lee Harris, has travelled the state, hosted town halls, and met with working families to keep them informed and help organize their efforts to combat Haslam's unprecedented outsourcing and privatization scheme.

A green plan for future generations.

John Ray believes that our state should lead by example, and he has many ideas how Tennessee government can operate more efficiently and reduce its carbon footprint and protect our state's natural beauty for generations to come.

Tennessee's best days are ahead of us. Focused on the future, I am working to continue Nashville's progress and get our entire state back on track.